Report on the Research at the Institute of Informatics of the University of Szeged 20 0 3 -2 0 0 6 Szeged, 2007 A Short Introduction of the Institute I. HISTORY AND MISSION Computer Economist, BSc Systematic education in computer science was The normal duration of the program is 7 launched within the Mathematical Institute at the end semesters. The program produces experts who are of the 1950’s by László Kalmár. The Institute of In­ well versed in the information society, and are able formatics was founded as an independent unit in 1990. to understand and solve the problems arising in real The head of the Institute: Prof. Zoltán Fulöp. The business processes. They can manage the informa­ deputies of the head: Dr. Eva Gombás (student af­ tion technology supporting the business needs, such fairs) and Dr. Karoly Devenyi (management) as to improve on the knowledge base and business The Institute consists of five departments and a intelligence of companies, model the cooperation of research group: info communication processes and technologies, con­ trol those processes, identify problems, and develop • Department of Applied Informatics, head of the applications (and also maintain and monitor their department: Dr. Tibor Csendes 1 quality). Moreover the graduates are equipped by • Department of Computer Algorithms and Arti­ the theoretical basics to continue their studies at MSc ficial Intelligence, head of the department: Prof. level. Janos Csirik Computer Engineer, BSc • Department of Foundations of Computer Sci­ The normal duration of the program is 7 ence, head of the department: Prof. Zoltan Esik semesters. The goal of the program is to train com­ • Department of Image Processing and Computer puter experts with solid engineering skills. The grad­ Graphics, head of the department: Dr. Eoörs uates are expected to install and operate complex sys­ M áte2 tems, especially in the information infrastructure area, • Department of Software Engineering, head of and also to plan and develop the data and program the department: Dr. Tibor Gyimáothy system of such systems. This means skills both in hardware and advanced software technology, involving • Research Group on Artificial Intelligence of the modeling, simulation, performance, reliability, config­ Hungarian Academy of Sciences, head of the re­ uration, trouble shooting, maintenance, and develop­ search group: Prof. Jáanos Csirik ment of systems. They are also provided with ap­ The main activities of the institute are the edu­ propriate basic knowledge to continue their studies at cation and research of modern informatics and com­ MSc level. puter science knowledge. Here we provide a sketch of Computer Program Designer, BSc our educational programs and research activities. The normal duration of the program is 6 II. EDUCATION semesters. The graduates are supposed to have high skills in planning and development of company infor­ The institute offers BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees. The mation systems using modern software tools. Further­ curricula consist mainly of mandatory courses for un­ more, they are trained in the planning, development dergraduates and a broad spectrum for specialization and operation of decision support systems, expert sys­ at graduate level. The curricula have already been tems, and multimedia systems. The graduates also re­ adjusted to conform to the so-called Bologna project, ceive firm basis in Computer Science knowledge in or­ embracing most of the topics of modern informatics der to have suitable knowledge to continue their stud­ and computer science. ies at MSc level. The informatics/computer science and some of the engineering courses belong to the departments of the GRADUATE PROGRAMS Institute of Informatics. The Institute of Mathemat­ Computer Program Designer, MSc ics and the Faculty of Economics and Business Ad­ ministration are responsible for the mathematics and The normal duration of the program is 4 economics courses. The physics courses are taught by semesters. The goal of the training is to produce infor- the Departments of Physics. In the Computer Engi­ matics/computer science experts who have firm theo­ neer BSc program we cooperate w ith the Kecskemáet retical basis, and they are able to expand their knowl­ College. edge autonomously in a long run. They can work in teams or on their own, to develop, produce, apply, in­ BSC PROGRAMS troduce, maintain, and to service information systems Presently we have three programs at undergradu­ at high level. Furthermore, they possess the necessary ate level: Computer Economist, Computer Engineer, cooperation and model making skill that are needed and Computer Program Designer. for solving of the informatics problems arising in their fields. They are also able to conduct research work, and to continue their studies at PhD level. There are six offered fields for specializations: Image Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Model Making for Informati- 1 Dr. Balázs Imreh was the head between 2003-2005. cians, Operations Research, Computer Science, and 2 Prof. Attila Kuba was the head between 2003-2006. Software Development. 1 PhD program in Computer Science Process synthesis. Optimization problems arising in chemistry, biology and industry. In addition of the above programs, a doctoral pro­ gram in Computer Science is available since 1993. The Research Group on Artificial Intelligence aim of this program is to support graduate studies, Machine learning, Computational learning theory. leading to the degree of PhD in computer science, Natural language procession, Language technology, with an emphasis on theoretical aspects. The pro­ Speech technology, Peer-to-peer algorithms and sys­ gram is part of the Doctoral School in Mathemat­ tems. ics and Computer Science of the Faculty of Science of the University of Szeged. It is composed of three The members of the Institute of Informatics pub­ subprograms: Theoretical Computer Science, Opera­ lish about 150 scientific papers in highly respected in­ tions Research and Combinatorial Optimization, and ternational journals/proceedings anually. Applications of Computer Science. The possible re­ search topics include mostly come from those parts of P artn ers computer science and related areas, which are being The Institute of Informatics has joint pro­ investigated at the Institute of Informatics. The nor­ grams and research cooperation (e.g. CEEPUS, mal duration of the program is 6 semesters. Students SOCRATES/ERASMUS) with the following higher are required to take entrance examinations for the ad­ education institutes from North-America, Europe, mittance. The State of Hungary usually supports up and Asia. to 5-6 new fellowships every year that is offered to Hungarian citizens. Foreign students are not entitled C anada: University of Waterloo, Canada, Queen’s for that fellowship, their tuition and other expenses University, Canada. have to be supported from other sources. U SA : Boston University, MA, City University of New York, NY, Columbia University, New York, NY, The III. RESEARCH THEMES AND CO­ University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, University of Illi­ OPERATIONS nois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken NJ, AT&T Labs. The departments of the Institute conduct research in A ustria: Technische Universität Wien, Medizinische the following areas. Universitat Graz, Technische Universitat Graz. Czech Republic: Charles University, Prague. Department of Applied Informatics D enm ark: University of Aalborg. Reliable computing, interval optimization, dis­ E ngland: University College London, GB. crete optimization, PNS problems, extremal graph F inland: University of Turku, Lappeenranta Univer­ theory, combinatorial games, and history of mathe­ sity of Technology. matics. France: University of Bordeaux, INRIA, Sophia An­ tipolis, University of Paris 6 and 7. Department of Image Processing and Com­ G erm any: Technische Universitaät Ilmenau, Technis­ puter Graphics che Universitat Dresden, Universität Hamburg, Tech­ Image models based on random Markov fields, nische Universitat Munchen, Universität Erlangen- Parametric estimation of transformations, Higher or­ Nfirnberg, Universität Mannheim, Universität Karl­ der active contour models, Analysis of satellite pic­ sruhe, Universität Stuttgart. tures, Digital spatial models. Vectorization of scanned Switzerland: University of Bern. drawings, Computer-Aided surgery. Medical image Italy: University of Rome La Sapienza. analysis, Skeletonization by thinning, Image registra­ Netherlands: Technical University of Eindhoven. tion, and Discrete tomography. Serbia: University of Nis, University of Novi Sad, Institut Mihajlo Pupin, Belgrad. Department of Foundations of Computer Sci­ Slovenia: University of Maribor. en ce Spain: Universidad de Almeria, Universidad de Tar­ Algebra and logics in computer science, Automata ragona. and formal languages. Tree-automata and tree- China: Hong Kong University of Science & Technol­ transducers. Term rewriting systems, and fixed points ogy. in computer science. Process algebras, Temporal log­ Israel: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Univer­ ics. Structures in computer science: semirings and sity of Haifa. semi-modules, and categorical algebras. Japan: Kyoto Sangyo University, University of Aizu. Department of Computer Algorithms and Ar­ IV. OTHER ACTIVITIES tificial Intelligence Automata theory, Fuzzy theory, Bin packing, CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION Meta heuristics, String matching, On-line algorithms, We have organized several conferences from the Machine Learning and Computational